Sisters of Mercy Sideshow

On February 28 2012, UK post-punk legends, The Sisters Of Mercy, will play a very special headline performance at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne.

Tickets will go fast and if you get one remember not to wear a pastel coloured polo shirt to the gig.

The show will be the only headline performance for the band in Australia, who is touring as a part of the Soundwave Festival in February and March.

“Be advised that the Sisters are going on tour again. We will behave very badly. We will wear some very loud shirts. We will wear some very wrong trousers. We will perform some very legendary rock music. It’s what we do.” (Sisters Of Mercy)

Despite numerous line-up changes, disputes with their record company that saw the band cease recording in 1990, legal battles and internal dissent, The Sisters Of Mercy have remained at the forefront of the underground scene since their formation in Leeds over thirty years ago.

Led by the ominous baritone vocals of Andrew Eldritch, with the infamous resident drum machine, Doktor Avalanche, Chris Catalyst and Ben Christo, the 2012 incarnation of The Sisters Of Mercy is “a lean and glittering groove machine for the new millennium, leaving the sullenly anachronistic reformations of their contemporaries far behind”. (Metal Hammer)

New and hence unreleased songs make up half of any Sisters set these days, although the classics get a good thrashing in rotation. Having derived their light show from the Big Bang (gleefully inventing rave lighting in the process), the Sisters see no reason to tone it down, and will be exploding in all their usual glory.

THE SISTERS OF MERCY

Tue February 28th

Corner Hotel, Melbourne

 

This Corrosion – The Sisters of Mercy

This song remains probably the most absurdly bombastic of all goth anthems, a magnificent vision of excess and indulgence. And it still works.

It’s an unashamed dance floor filler, so long as you don’t mind dancing in a dark club surrounded by other creatures of the night dressed in black lace and leather and an excess of black eye shadow.

But credit where credit is due. The song is a brilliantly constructed piece of music. Built around a throbbing synth bassline the song continues relentlessly for over ten minutes, driving deeper and deeper into the abyss.

It opens with a choral overture that was actually performed by a 40 voice choir before a harpsichord motif comes into play. The choir returns sporadically to counterpoint the monotone vocal of Andrew Eldritch. The harpsichord returns as well in the moments that push the song almost to the point of self parody. But it never crosses that line.

Listening to the song in its entirety now its almost impossible not to admire it for its complete commitment to what it sought to achieve.

So along with Eldritch who was responsible for this milestone in goth rock? Look no further than the producer of the track Jim Steinman. And if that name doesn’t ring a bell then go ask Google.

Trust me , it explains everything.